Following in the footsteps of our Birch, Maple, and Beech drum series, Oak shows great promise as a drum shell material. A solid fundamental delivers a powerful sound while its character allows for a unique shell size line up. Beautifully grained, this hardwood creates a drum with stunning looks.

Features

New Finishes Now Available

We've just added the following new finishes to the Oak lineup: Amber Sunburst (AMS), Black Sparkle Sunburst (BSS), and Red Sparkle (RDS). Click the "Colors & Finishes" tab above to see the new finishes.

Audio & Video

Features

New Finishes Now Available

We've just added the following new finishes to the Oak lineup: Amber Sunburst (AMS), Black Sparkle Sunburst (BSS), and Red Sparkle (RDS). Click the "Colors & Finishes" tab above to see the new finishes.

Air Seal System for Superior Shells

The use of our original Air Seal System is, in part, responsible for the superior quality found in Yamaha drum shells. Select woods are cut into plies, positioned with staggered diagonal seams, and sealed together with evenly distributed air pressure. The resulting shells are perfectly round and of uniform thickness delivering superior tone quality and exceptional durability.

All Oak Shell

Utilization of Yamaha's Air Seal system allows for the first time use of oak in a drum shell. As in our Maple and Birch series, this process delivers a shell that's perfectly round, with uniform thickness and excellent durability. The bass drum shell is 7-plys while the toms and floor tom shells are 6-plys. All shells throughout the entire range deliver a solid fundamental and powerful sound.

Oak Shells are Universal Sizes

Oak Custom shell depths are sized in between our "jazz" depth and "power" depth drums. The universal size allows for maximum projection while maintaining strong attack. Bass drums are available in 18"x15" and 20", 22", and 24" diameters with a universal 17" depth. The added depth enhances the oak's tone with greater bottom end and more power.
Floor toms come in conventional sizes (14"x14", 16"x16", and 18"x16")

Sleek, Low-Mass Lugs

These small, oval-shaped lugs are easily attached to the shell with a single bolt. Small footprints offer minimum lug to shell contact allowing the shell to deliver maximum tone. A special nylon insert prevents tension rods from becoming loose during play.

Floating Bass Drum System

Height adjustment on the pedal side of the bass drum is possible with the pipe post stabilizer. Use of this system ensures that the beater makes contact at the center of the head. The stabilizer fits into a pipe clamp on the underside of the drum that allows quick and easy adjustment of the height. The post is equipped with a memory clamp that ensures subsequent settings will be quick and precise every time.

Bass Drum Spurs

A sturdy hexagonal design and fixed angle position allow our spurs to withstand the punishment of even the heaviest bass drum foot. For the Oak Custom we made the spurs heavier and even stronger. Height adjustment and the releasing and retracting of the pointed spur are made easily with a drum key.

Mounted Toms and Floor Toms Equipped with YESS Mounts

Long found on our high-end drum kits our original YESS (Yamaha Enhanced Sustain System) mounting system is on all Oak Custom toms and floor toms. This rod clamp system allows attachment of the drum to the tom holder without the need of a hole in the drum shell for the rod to pass through. The YESS clamp is attached to the shell at the nodal point with two bolts so as to allow the shell to vibrate freely without degrading the shell's dynamic range and sustain. The nodal point is the location on a shell with the least amount of vibration allowing for the mount to have minimal affect to the resonance of the shell.

Ball Clamp & Triple Tom Holder

This round ball clamp has long been a fundamental part of Yamaha System Drums. Made of super-hard resin, the ball is held firmly in place with a steel plate and large wing bolt. While providing ease of operation, this system also delivers total freedom in setting and superior stability.
The triple tom holder accommodates two toms as well as a cymbal holder to provide a wide variety of set up possibilities.

Technology

Audio & Video

Yamaha Oak Custom Drums

The first models were produced at Yamaha's Niitsu factory in Hamamatsu, Japan, and later at our Miyatake factory as well. Many drummers who are familiar with Yamaha today believe that Sakae Rhythm was the original Yamaha production facility, but in fact production was started at Yamaha's own factories. Another common misconception is that our Air Seal System was developed at Sakae Rhythm, but it was actually developed and introduced right from the first models that were produced at our own factories. One of the earliest Yamaha drum brochures shows the original Yamaha production facility and describes Air Seal System technology, a Yamaha innovation that is a vital part of our identity as a drum manufacturer to this day.

First overseas "Yamaha Artist"

Al Foster, who was touring Japan with the Miles Davis at the time, signed on to become a Yamaha endorser in 1972.This was the turning point at which Yamaha drums began to be recognized as world-class instruments that satisfied the requirements of leading professionals in the field.

Yamaha "System Drum" concept

Shell mounting hardware had been different for each series and model up until this time. The system drum concept brought about the unification of all drum mounting hardware so that drums and hardware from any series could be mixed and combined as required.Hexagonal rods and holder bases of the same specifications were used for all models, and the diameter of all stand hardware piping and holders was fixed at 22mm to allow total system fiexibility and freedom.Although this approach is commonplace among today's drum manufacturers, it was a revolutionary concept at the time. Just one of Yamaha's many innovations that have become standards.Another Yamaha hardware innovation worthy of mention is the hide-away boom stand. It was patented at the time, but as soon as the patent expired all of our competitors began copying our design. Today it has become another "standard" feature.

Yamaha ball clamp

This continuously adjustable ball clamp made it possible to position toms up, down, left, or right, to any position required with one quick action. The current design allows toms to be flipped over for convenient bottom-head tuning ... a feature that is greatly appreciated by both drummers and drum technicians. Like the hexagonal mounting rod, the ball clamp has become a symbol of Yamaha hardware superiority.

YD9000 "Recording Custom"

This model featured 100% birch shells, one-piece lugs, and a gorgeous sprayed finish. Maple was the most popular material for drum shells at the time, following the trend set by jazz drums from the U.S.A. Through our own research related to pianos and wind instruments, we had realized that birch would be an ideal material for drum shells. We were also the first to apply piano finishing techniques to drums, eschewing the veneer covering that was common at the time. The full force of Yamaha technology was applied to the production of this landmark product.The use of one-piece lugs to enhance the natural hardness of the birch shells resulted in a tight, well-defined sound that was enthusiastically adopted by many top artists of the day, including Steve Gadd and Cozy Powell. The sound was so well suited to recording that the YD9000 has become the most recorded drum set in history. The name was later changed to "Recording Custom," a model that is still widely used today.

Maple Custom

Although there were concerns that a change from birch to maple shells might meet some resistance from users, Yamaha decided to introduce maple shells in order to accommodate changes in the music scene as well as evolving recording technology. From about the mid 80's, influenced by the emergence of fusion, drummers began demanding response and resonance that would suit the more elaborate phrasing used in that genre. Maple provided a bright, rapid response that was ideal, and by reducing the dimensions of parts that could dampen resonance as much as possible the natural shell resonance could come through with unrestricted tone. This led to the development of small, lightweight lugs, an extremely thin "vintage" finish, and the YESS (Yamaha Enhanced Sustain System) nodal mount for open, organic shell resonance.The idea of using small lugs mounted so that they don't dampen shell resonance was quickly adopted by other manufacturers as well.

Stage Custom

Throughout the 90's Yamaha maintained an active, aggressive approach to product development. The Stage Custom model introduced in 1996 was one result. This series offered the same type of birch shell that was being used in the popular RC series, with the same one-piece lugs and a beautiful sprayed finish, at a surprisingly affordable price.

Maple Absolute

The Maple Absolute series took the philosophy of achieving the richest possible shell resonance to the next level. In the same year new beech shells were introduced alongside the existing birch shells in the Absolute series.At around this time Yamaha was collaborating with top-level artists from all around the world in developing a range of exciting new products such as the Hipgig and JR drum kits, the Musashi snare, and the Subkick low-frequency capture device.

Oak Custom

Although other manufacturers had avoided using oak in drums because it is extremely difficult to work with, Yamaha succeeded in forming this very hard wood into drum shells using our Air Seal System technology. The result was impressive response and huge bass that has made this model a standard in the Yamaha lineup.

The Absolute series evolves

Pushing Yamaha finishing technology to the limit, a lineup of almost 50 colors was developed for the Absolute series. The revolutionary detachable Nouveau lugs were developed to further reduce shell damping while at the same time making head replacement easier than ever.

The PHX series is born

Years of drum manufacturing experience and accumulated technological know-how, plus in-depth reassessment of every critical aspect of drum design and production, all came together to bring about a profound evolution in the form of the hybrid shell: the key to delivering unprecedented tone and power. The lugs took another evolutionary leap too. Going beyond the concept of minimizing shell damping, lug design and mounting now plays an active role in creating and controlling the sound of the drums by suppressing unwanted harmonics. Tom mounting has advanced as well, resulting in unprecedented tone and consistent playability.

PHX technology applied throughout the line

The YESS2 mount and new hook lugs developed for the PHX series have now been implemented in the Absolute series as well, contributing to even clearer, richer sound. A newly developed textured finish has been applied in the Rock Tour series, significantly enhancing visual impact. Kapur was discovered and used for its excellent tonal qualities in the PHX series drums and is now used as the sole tone wood for the sound of the Club Custom drums.